Peculiarities of American Cities

Any one who has visited the royal residence of the kings of France, will immediately recognize the resemblance between the plans of Le Notre for Versailles, and L'Enfant for Washington City. The grand avenues, de Sceaux and St. Cloud, diverging from the Cour Royal, are reproduced in Pennsylvania and Maryland avenues, radiating from the east front of the Capitol. Its broad thoroughfares are among the principal attractions of Washington, and are the finest possessed by any city in the world. The avenues, twenty-one in number, radiate from principal centres and connect different parts of the city; the original number was thirteen, named for the States constituting the Union at the time the Capital was laid out. The first in importance is Pennsylvania avenue; its width varies from one hundred and sixty to one hundred and eighty feet; its length is four and one-half miles, traversing the finest business portion of the city, as well as being the most popular and fashionable thoroughfare for driving. The War and Treasury departments, Washington Circle, and the President's House, are each located on this superb street, which, winding up and around Capitol Hill, finds its terminus on the banks of the Anacostia.

The spaces at the intersection of the more important avenues form what are called Circles. Washington Circle, at the intersection of Pennsylvania and New Hampshire avenues, contains the equestrian statue of General Washington, which was ordered by Congress, and cannon donated for the purpose, in 1853. The great hero is represented at the crisis of the battle of Princeton; the horse seems shrinking from the storm of shot and shell and the fiery conflict confronting him; his rider exhibits that calm equanimity of bearing so eminently his characteristic. This statue was executed by Clark Mills, at a cost of fifty thousand dollars.

At the western base of Capitol Hill stands the naval monument, termed in the resolutions of Congress, the "Monument of Peace." It was designed by Admiral Porter, and erected by subscriptions started by him among the officers, midshipmen and men of his fleet, immediately after the fall of Fort Fisher. The height of this monument is forty-four feet; it is built of Carrara marble and cost $44,000. The surmounting figures represent History recording the woes narrated by America, who holds a tablet in her hand on which is inscribed: They died that their country might live. This monument is exceedingly well executed, and was considered, in Rome, one of the finest ever sent to America.

Lafayette Square, comprising seven acres lying north of the President's House, is beautifully laid out with rustic seats, graveled walks, and adorned with a rare variety of trees and shrubbery. In the centre of this square stands an equestrian statue of General Andrew Jackson, by Clark Mills, originally contracted for by the friends and admirers of the General composing the Jackson Monument Association, who subscribed twelve thousand dollars towards its erection. Congress afterward granted them the brass guns and mortars captured by General Jackson at Pensacola. In 1850 an additional donation of guns was made; in 1852 another appropriation sufficient to complete the work was granted, and Congress assumed possession of the monument. The figure of the horse is weighted and poised without the aid of rods, as in the celebrated statues of Peter the Great, at St. Petersburg, and Charles I., at London. This was the first application of the principle, and resulted in the production of one of the most graceful and astonishingly beautiful works of its kind in existence. The statue is of colossal size, weighing fifteen tons, and was erected at a cost of $50,000.

Scott Square, lying north of the White House, contains a bronze statue of General Winfield Scott, made of cannon captured by the General during his Mexican campaign, and donated by Congress in 1867. The work was executed by Brown, of New York; with the pedestal, it is twenty-nine feet high, and cost $20,000. The General is represented in full uniform, mounted on his war-horse, surveying the field of battle.

The Circle of Victory, at the intersection of Massachusetts and Vermont avenues, contains a bronze equestrian statue of General George H. Thomas, of the Army of the Cumberland. The statue confronts the South, in the direction of the General's native hills of Virginia. On the site of this monument a salute of eight hundred guns was fired in commemoration of the capture of Petersburg and Richmond on the third of April, 1865; and, a few days later, five hundred guns were fired from the same spot in honor of General Lee's surrender and the fall of the Southern Confederacy.

On East Capitol street, at a distance of about one mile from the Capitol, is a square comprising six and a half acres, beautifully laid out and adorned with trees, shrubbery and walks. In this enclosure a bronze group called Emancipation has been erected; Abraham Lincoln is represented holding in his right hand the proclamation which gave freedom to the negroes of the South. A slave kneels at his feet, with manacles broken, and in the act of rising as they fall from his hands. This monument is said to have been built exclusively of funds contributed by the negroes liberated by Lincoln's proclamation of January first, 1863. The first contribution of five hundred dollars was made, it is stated, by Charlotte Scott, formerly a slave in Virginia, out of her first earnings as a freed-woman, and consecrated by her, on hearing of President Lincoln's death, to aid in building a monument to his memory. The interesting memorial was unveiled with appropriate ceremonies, on the anniversary of his assassination, April fourteenth, 1876, the President and his Cabinet, foreign ministers, and a vast concourse of white and colored citizens being present. Including the pedestal of Virginia granite, the structure is twenty-two feet in height, and cost $20,000. It was in this square, now called Lincoln Square, that, according to the founder's original plan of embellishment, a grand Historic Column was to have been erected, to serve as an itinerary column, from which all geographical distances within the boundaries of the United States should be calculated.

McPherson Square, on Vermont avenue, contains a bronze equestrian statue of General James Birdseye McPherson, who was killed near Atlanta, at the head of the Army of the Tennessee, in 1864. He is represented in full uniform, with field-glasses in hand, surveying the battle-ground. A vault was constructed beneath the statue, for the purpose of receiving his body, but the devoted opposition of the people prevented its removal from his native place.

Farragut and Rawlins squares contain respectively colossal, but not equestrian statues of Admiral Farragut and General Rawlins.

Mount Vernon Place, at the intersection of New York and Massachusetts avenues, is handsomely laid out and planted with trees; in the centre, occupying an elevated circular space, is a superb fountain of bronze.

There are numerous smaller spaces at the intersection of various streets and avenues, called triangular reservations, all of which are highly adorned with trees, shrubs and beautiful small fountains.

The Government Propagating Gardens cover an area of eighty acres on the banks of the Potomac, south of Washington's Monument. The Botanical Garden, an instructive place of public resort, lies at the foot of Capitol Hill, between Pennsylvania and Maryland avenues. North of the Conservatory is found the Bartholdi Fountain, which is supplied with water from the aqueduct, its highest stream reaching an altitude of sixty-five feet. This fountain is the work of Frederic Augustus Bartholdi, a French sculptor and pupil of Scheffer. It will be remembered by all who visited the National Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, where it was exhibited, and afterward purchased by Congress for the inadequate sum of six thousand dollars. The lower basin is twenty-six feet in diameter, and from its centre rises a pedestal bearing aquatic monsters and fishes spouting water; three female caryatides, eleven feet high, support a basin thirteen feet in diameter; a smaller basin above this is upheld by three infant Tritons, the whole being surmounted by a mural crown. Twelve lamps, arranged around the lower basin, and lighted by electricity, give the most beautiful effects of light and water. On the plaza in front of the Treasury Department, is another fine fountain, in the form of an immense granite urn, the tassa of which measures sixteen feet in diameter.

Immediately in front of Washington city the Potomac expands into a broad, lake-like body of water, a mile and a quarter wide and at least eighteen feet deep. The Anacostia River, at its mouth, is almost the same width and fully as deep. Improving the navigation of the Potomac and the construction of a canal to the head waters of the Ohio River, were enterprises that began with the founding of the National Capital.

In 1872, Congress appointed a board of officers with a view to the improvement of the channel of the river and water fronts of Washington and Georgetown, for commercial purposes, as well as the reclamation of the malaria-infected marshes opposite the city. These improvements will necessitate the rebuilding of Long Bridge for railroad and ordinary traveling purposes, and reclaim more than a thousand acres of valuable land. It is proposed to remove the National Observatory and use the earth for filling up the marshes.

The Navy Yard Bridge crosses the Anacostia River, at the foot of Eleventh street, having supplanted the wooden structure built in 1819, over which Booth made his escape after the assassination of Lincoln.

The various buildings occupied by the Executive and Legislative branches of the Government are worthy of especial notice. The Capitol is considered one of the largest and finest edifices of the kind in the world, and in point of durability of structure and costliness of material, it certainly has no superior. It stands on the west side of Capitol Hill, very near the centre of the city, and one mile distant from the Potomac River. The main or central building is three hundred and fifty two feet in length, with two wings or extensions, each having a front of one hundred and forty-three feet on the east and west, and a depth of two hundred and thirty-nine feet along the north and south façades, exclusive of the porticoes. The entire length of this great edifice is seven hundred and fifty feet; its greatest depth three hundred and twenty-four feet; the ground plan covering three and a half acres.

The central and original Capitol building is of freestone, taken from the Government quarries at Aquia Creek, forty miles below the city, which were purchased for that purpose, by the Commissioners, in 1791. This building is now painted white, to correspond with the extensions, columns and porticoes of white marble. From the centre rises the great dome, designed by Walter, to replace the original one removed in 1856, after the additions to the building had rendered it out of proportion. The apex is surmounted by a lantern fifty feet high, surrounded by a peristyle, and crowned by the bronze statue of Freedom executed by Crawford in 1865. The height from the base line to the crest of this statue is three hundred and eight feet, making the dome of the Capitol rank fifth in height with the greatest structures of the kind in Europe.

The great dome is visible from every elevated point in the District for miles around, and from its windows, as far as the eye can reach, is extended a panorama of wooded hills, beautiful valleys, with the majestic cloud-capped spurs of the Blue Ridge raising their lofty heads in the distance. The eastern façade of the building looks out upon the extended plain of Capitol Hill, with its background of green hills reaching far beyond the Anacostia. On the north a broad valley extends, until it unites with the encircling hills of the city; on the south the majestic Potomac and Anacostia rivers are seen to meet and mingle their placid waters; while from the west are beheld the lawns and groves of the Botanic Garden, the Mall, and handsome grounds of the President's house, with Georgetown Heights and the glittering domes of the Observatory in the distance.

The main entrance, from the grand portico into the rotunda is filled by the celebrated bronze door modeled by Rogers, in Rome, 1858, and cast in bronze at Munich, by Miller, in 1860. On the panels of this door are portrayed, in alto relievo, the principal events in the life of Christopher Columbus, and the discovery of America. The key of the arch is adorned with a fine head of the great navigator; in the four corners of the casing are statuettes, representing Asia, Africa, Europe and America, with a border in relief of ancient armor, banners and heraldic designs emblematic of navigation and conquest. Bordering each leaf on the door are statuettes, sixteen in number, of his patrons and contemporaries; the nine panels bear alto relievo illustrations of the principal events in his life; while between the panels are a series of heads, representing the historians of the great discoverer and his followers. Altogether, this justly celebrated bronze door, besides being wonderful as a work of art, constitutes in itself a small volume of the most interesting and important events belonging to the history of our country.

The rotunda into which the door leads is embellished with eight large historical paintings, by different artists. Four of these were executed by Trumbell, who served as aid-de-camp to Washington in 1775, and reproduced in his figures the likenesses of the actors in the scenes portrayed. In arranging the characters for the "Declaration of Independence," in which the Congress of 1776 is represented in the act of signing that great instrument of American liberty, the artist conferred with Jefferson, the Author of the Declaration, and John Adams, both of whom were present and signers. The individual costumes, the furniture, and the hall itself, are represented with scrupulous fidelity, all of which tends to increase the interest inspired by this painting.

The National Library was founded by act of Congress in 1800, and the following year, after the report of John Randolph, of Roanoke, had been submitted, setting forth the necessity for further legislation on the subject, a second act was passed, which placed it on a permanent basis. The number of volumes first contained in the library was three thousand, but appropriations were annually made by Congress to increase the number. In 1814 the Capitol was burned by the British, and the library destroyed; a few months later, Thomas Jefferson offered the Government his private collection of 6,700 volumes, among which were many rare and valuable works obtained in Europe, and these were purchased for the sum of $23,950. In 1866 the Smithsonian Library, containing forty thousand volumes, was added, and a year later, the Peter Force collection was purchased by Congress, for $100,000; constant additions have increased the number, until the library now contains nearly four hundred thousand bound volumes, and one hundred thousand pamphlets. It is enriched also by journals, manuscripts, and maps relating to the history and topography of the country; in respect to the latter, being only approached by the library in the British Museum. The Library halls occupy the principal floor of the entire west projection of the Capitol.

In the Vice President's Room hangs the original painting of Washington, taken from life by Rembrandt Peale, and purchased by the Government in 1832, for the sum of two thousand dollars.

The Senate Reception Room is a beautiful and brilliant apartment, about sixty feet in length, with its vaulted and arched ceiling, divided into four sections, adorned with allegorical frescoes of Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Strength, executed by Brumidi, in 1856. The ceiling is heavily gilded throughout; the walls finished in stucco and gilt, with a base of Scagliola, imitating the marbles of Potomac and Tennessee. A finely executed fresco, in oil, by Brumidi, adorns the south wall, representing Washington in consultation with Jefferson and Hamilton, his Secretaries of State and Treasury.

The President's Boom is an equally magnificent apartment, with groined arches embellished with numerous allegorical figures in fresco, the decoration, by Brumidi, being, in general design, the same as in the private audience chamber of the Vatican at Rome. The work throughout is very fine, being richly decorated with arabesques on a groundwork of gilt; the luxurious furniture of the apartment is entirely in keeping with this high order of artistic finish.

The old Hall of the House of Representatives is a magnificent apartment, designed and planned after the theatre at Athens, with fourteen Corinthian columns of variegated marble, forming a circular colonnade on the north. The bases of these columns are of freestone, the capitals of Carrara marble, designed and executed in Italy, after those in the temple of Jupiter Stator, at Rome; the paneled dome overhead is similar to that of the Pantheon. This venerable apartment was occupied by the House of Representatives for thirty-two years; its atmosphere must, in consequence, ever continue redolent with historic associations. On its walls, in the old days, hung the full-length portraits of Washington and Lafayette, presented by the latter on his last visit to this country; and the exact spot is pointed out where stood the desk of the venerable Ex-President, John Quincy Adams, when that aged patriot and senator was stricken by death. When, on the completion of the new, the old Hall was abandoned, in 1857, it was set apart, by Congress, as a National Statuary Gallery, and the President authorized to invite the different States to contribute statues, in bronze or marble, of such among their distinguished citizens as they might especially desire to honor, the number being limited to two from each State. These contributions have been coming in slowly from year to year, besides which, many valuable statues and paintings have been purchased and added, by the Government.

The new Hall of Representatives is said to be the finest in the world; its length being one hundred and thirty-nine feet, width ninety-three, and height thirty-six feet, while the galleries will seat twenty-five hundred persons. The ceiling is of cast-iron, with panels gilded and filled with stained-glass centres, on which are represented the coat-of-arms of each of the different States. The walls are adorned with valuable historical paintings and frescoes.

The Supreme Court Room, formerly the old United States Senate Chamber, is a semicircular apartment, seventy-five feet in diameter; its height and greatest width being forty-five feet. The ceiling is formed by a flattened dome, ornamented with square caissons in stucco, with apertures for the admission of light. Supporting a gallery back of the Judges' seats extends a row of Ionic columns of Potomac marble, with capitals of white Italian marble, modeled after those in the Temple of Minerva. Along the western wall are marble brackets, each supporting the bust of a deceased Chief Justice.

When occupied by the Senate, the Hall contained desks for sixty-four Senators. It was in this chamber that the Nation's purest and most profound statesmen assembled, and the great "Immortal Trio," Clay, Webster and Calhoun, made those wonderful forensic efforts which gave their names forever to fame and the admiration of posterity.

The New Senate Chamber, first occupied in 1859, is a magnificent apartment, belonging to the new extension of the Capitol, one hundred and thirteen feet in length by eighty feet in width, and thirty-six feet high. The Senators' desks are constructed of mahogany, and arranged in concentric semicircles around the apartment. The galleries rise and recede in tiers to the corridors of the second floor, and are capable of seating twelve thousand people.

Immense iron girders and transverse pieces compose the ceiling, forming deep panels, each glazed with a symbolic centre piece; the walls are richly painted, the doors elaborately finished with bronze ornaments. From the lobby we pass into the Senate Retiring Room, handsomely furnished, and said to be the finest apartment of the kind in the world. The ceiling is composed of massive blocks of polished white marble, which form deep panels, resting upon four Corinthian columns, also of white Italian marble. Highly polished Tennessee marble lines the entire walls, in the panels of which are placed immense plate glass mirrors, enhancing the brilliancy and already striking effect of the whole.

The limits of this chapter will not admit of further description of the numerous apartments gorgeously furnished; the palatial corridors beautifully designed; magnificent vestibules with fluted columns of marble; richly gilt paneled ceilings and tinted walls; grand stairways of marble and bronze, with the statues, busts, paintings and bronzes, which enrich the Capitol, many of them being masterpieces of art, and none devoid of merit. A detailed account of all would fill a small volume; we are compelled, therefore, to reluctantly leave the subject, and proceed to the description of the Public Buildings.

The President's House is situated in the western part of the city, distant one and a half miles from the Capitol. A premium of five hundred dollars was awarded James Hoban, architect, of South Carolina, for the plan, and the corner stone laid, with Masonic honors, October thirteenth, 1792. John Adams was the first presidential occupant; he took possession during the month of November, 1800, after the Government offices had been removed to Washington. This building was burned by the British in 1814; the following year Congress authorized its restoration, committing the work to the original architect, Hoban, by whom it was completed in 1826, in all its details. It is built of freestone, one hundred and seventy feet in length, eighty-six in width, with grand porticoes on the north and south fronts, supported by Ionic columns. The main entrance is on the north, by a spacious vestibule handsomely frescoed. The Blue Room, in which the President receives, on both public and private occasions, is an oval-shaped apartment, finished in blue and gilt, with draperies and furniture of blue damask. Communicating with this is a second parlor called the Green Room, from the prevailing color of the furniture and hangings. In this apartment are found the portraits of Presidents Madison, Monroe, Harrison and Taylor. The East Room, which closes the suite, is a truly royal apartment, magnificently decorated in a style purely Grecian, the ceiling frescoed in oil, mantles of exquisite wood carving, immense mirrors in magnificent frames, with the richest furniture, and window drapery of the costliest lace and damask. A full length portrait of Washington adorns this apartment, purchased by Congress in 1803. When the Capitol was burned, in 1814, this painting was rescued from destruction by Mrs. Madison, who had it removed from the frame and carried to a place of safety. A portrait of Martha, the wife of Washington, also hangs in this room, painted by Andrews in 1878.

The numerous other apartments in the President's House exhibit the same lavish style of adorning, the furniture being constantly changed and renewed; but the vandal spirit of change has not, as yet, dared to lay its sacrilegious hand upon or to alter the construction of the house, which remains the same as when, almost a century ago, it was first occupied by the elder President Adams. It is not difficult, therefore, to evoke the spirit of the past while standing among these ancient apartments, halls and corridors, and behold in fancy the long line of true statesmen, incorruptible patriots and noble men, who have successively lived and moved among them, in the early days of the Republic. And it is to be devoutly hoped that the vanity and caprice of the rulers who, in these later years, are being cast into high places, will not prevail in the effort to have this venerable home of the Presidents, hallowed by the memories of the nation's past, cast aside, and another building, modern and meaningless, substituted in its stead.

Immediately west of the President's House stands the Department of State, War and Navy, a vast and imposing structure in the Doric style, combining the massive proportions of the ancient with the elegance of modern architecture. The Diplomatic Reception Room is a magnificent apartment, decorated and furnished in the most sumptuous manner, with ebonized woods and gold brocade, after the Germanized Egyptian style. The portraits of Daniel Webster and Lord Ashburton, by Healy (purchased by Congress from the widow of Fletcher Webster, 1879), adorn the walls, and over the mantels are busts, in bronze, of Washington and Lafayette. In the Diplomatic Ante-room is seen a full-length portrait of the Bey of Tunis, sent by special envoy in 1865, with a letter of condolence to the Government, on the death of Lincoln. Above this apartment is the library, containing a valuable collection of works on diplomacy, and many objects of interest, including the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, with the desk on which it was written, presented to the Government by the heirs of James Coolidge, of Massachusetts, to whom it was presented by Thomas Jefferson. The original document, signed, is also here, together with the sword of Washington, purchased by Congress in 1880, and his commission as Commander-in-Chief; the staff of Franklin; original drafts of the laws of the United States, the Federal Constitution, and other valuable and interesting historic documents, from the foundation of the Government. The entire building contains one hundred and fifty apartments, and cost five million dollars.